FTTPod or wait?

I am thinking about getting FTTPod, quote is 15K plus VAT, which is a huge amount to spend.

I have checked with an accountant and i cannot claim tax back on this on a self assessment , which is a real shame.

Our house is an a group of 3, which are 0.5miles away from the nearest other house and about 0.7miles away from the nearest house with FTTP.

Our current connection is awful at best its 20mb down and 1-2 up.

I have tried
4G and 5G (with antennas), no good.
Two broadband connections - not a lot of benefit
Starlink - amazing initially, then was so hit and miss i cancelled it.

So I either wait or get FTTPod…

My guess is that if i don't get FTTPod, our house will never get it.

Does anyone know if some houses will never get it?
Is there any new tech coming out that will make FTTP unnecessary?

If I look at the 18K over a 10year period, its slightly more palatable, but it will be frustrating as hell if i find in 18 months a new type of of broadband comes out that means I didn't need it!


Any ideas?

OpenReach are the biggest fibre provider and they are targeting 25 million premises by end of next year. What they do after that hasn't as far as I know been announced.

There are also a large number of other providers building in various places. Whether any of these will come to you would likely take a lot of research to find out.

Even in 10 years time there could still be some premises that don't have FTTP for one reason or another. So, your gamble is whether you end up in the tail end where it just isn't economically viable to roll out to you. If that is the case you might find FTTPoD worthwhile (although I understand it could take over a year to get it installed). But, if you pay it out and then 2 months later one of the providers puts in FTTP then I suspect you will be pretty hacked off.

Your best bet may be to see if there are any other FTTP providers nearby and contact them to ask if they can install to you. If none of them will or OpenReach are the only ones nearby then as you say either wait or pay - I don't think many people will be able to give you a solid answer as to the chances of you getting FTTP in any particular timescale.

In reply to a post by Robduke:

I am thinking about getting FTTPod, quote is 15K plus VAT, which is a huge amount to spend.
[...]
Our current connection is awful at best its 20mb down and 1-2 up.

I'm going to be devil's advocate and just say there are far more 'awful' connections out there than that!

In reply to a post by Robduke:

I have tried
4G and 5G (with antennas), no good.
Two broadband connections - not a lot of benefit
Starlink - amazing initially, then was so hit and miss i cancelled it.

Curious as to the issues you had with Starlink? There seem to be so much out there from people saying that it was transformative for them.

Hi,

Is this a final quote i.e they’ve done a site survey?

I’ve just been quoted £78k ex VAT for 0.25 miles from nearest fibre,, passing 9 properties. No new poles required.

I would love if you could share your quote with me as I’m currently pleading my case with Openreach, local MP, etc. In my view my quote just doesn’t seem to stack up.

Thanks

Colin

Also, what status is your property on the Thinkbroadband Project Gigabit status map?

Is it Yellow (no commercial plans) or Blue (under review)?

Grey dots have a fibre service.


https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/index.php?tab=...

In reply to a post by jjrobb:

Also, what status is your property on the Thinkbroadband Project Gigabit status map?

Is it Yellow (no commercial plans) or Blue (under review)?

Grey dots have a fibre service.


https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/index.php?tab=...

I second this and was going to type the same myself. Anyways check your gigabit status before doing anything.

In reply to a post by Robduke:

I am thinking about getting FTTPod, quote is 15K plus VAT, which is a huge amount to spend.

I have checked with an accountant and i cannot claim tax back on this on a self assessment , which is a real shame.

Our house is an a group of 3, which are 0.5miles away from the nearest other house and about 0.7miles away from the nearest house with FTTP.

Our current connection is awful at best its 20mb down and 1-2 up.

I have tried
4G and 5G (with antennas), no good.
Two broadband connections - not a lot of benefit
Starlink - amazing initially, then was so hit and miss i cancelled it.

So I either wait or get FTTPod…

My guess is that if i don't get FTTPod, our house will never get it.

Does anyone know if some houses will never get it?
Is there any new tech coming out that will make FTTP unnecessary?

If I look at the 18K over a 10year period, its slightly more palatable, but it will be frustrating as hell if i find in 18 months a new type of of broadband comes out that means I didn't need it!


Any ideas?

I did it but 7 years ago, when costs were far more reasonable (it’s all relative with FoD) and there was some subsidy capability which I leveraged. I’ve had all this time to amortise the costs, so it’s been OK from a commercial perspective and I ran it all through my business at the time.

Honestly with the rate and state of the OR build, there’s no way I’d recommend doing it in 2025. The absolutely mammoth costs are there to discourage not encourage.

Curious as to the issues you had with Starlink? There seem to be so much out there from people saying that it was transformative for them.

If they are in the south east then StarLink stopped new sales for a time because they were over subscribed and I think they still warn that it is a congested area.

Thanks everyone for all the responses.

My property has a yellow dot on the map. Postcode is CH665PN.

So i assume unlikely for a while if ever?

You are in the "for a while " category.

Freedom fibre won the contract for lot 17, but since has pulled out of the contract. That means there is little to no data mapping for your area.

keep an eye on the labs page and also here > https://www.gov.uk/guidance/project-gigabit-network-...

its not what you want to hear but you have wait, i've been in a similar situation when fttp was halted in new forest and that lead to a short 18 month delay. So i know (like many) how crushing it feels to hear bad news

Once you know what the gov is going to do with cheshire and your area (lots of yellow i see) i'd then see what OR are going to do and what options are available .. If you inquire now (pester) it would probably be met with a negative or neutral reply.

atm, theres (still) OR, alt nets, gigabit contract and also community lead efforts (which is hard to do )


Also keep an eye on roadwork sites